Location: Upper Sector Library, Vire-Laravé – Quiet Floor of Cosmic Shocks
Time: [Cycle 5 : 21:01 Local Drift]
As the sun dipped beyond the temple walls and birds made unsettling squawk-noises that definitely didn't exist on Earth, Ren spotted Arix walking away from the temple's training ground with the air of someone who could assassinate gravity if it disrespected her.
"Hey," he called out, wiping his forehead. "You don't vanish into the trees after emotionally bruising me for twelve hours?"
She didn't stop.
"I do. I just haven't yet."
Ren jogged up beside her. "Wanna go for a walk? Talk about... anything besides the fact that my spleen might be somewhere in my boot?"
She gave him a side glance.
"You can walk?"
"Barely. But I've trained myself to not show weakness around women who carry more knives than facial expressions."
She smirked—briefly, like a rare seasonal phenomenon.
They walked through the upper garden paths of the city's outskirts, moonlight filtering through the crystalline trees. Eventually, she stopped in front of a softly lit building carved from silverstone, etched with glyphs of memory and prediction.
"You coming in?" she asked.
"Where?"
"Library," she said plainly. "I need intel."
"You read?"
"I gather."
She stepped inside. The interior was quiet — shelves floating mid-air, holograms gently rotating with ancient symbols, and hovering orbs that dimmed and brightened based on the reader's aura.
"I come here to check the vision crystals," she said, waving her hand toward a central pedestal where a glass sphere sat suspended in soft gravity. "They show the future. Or a future. Usually about 80% accurate."
"Wait, you're telling me this place has a magic crystal ball that spoils the plot ahead of time?"
"It gives hints," she said, deadpan. "Not spoilers."
"So it's like a psychic trailer."
"With less explosions. Usually."
FROST (in his head):
"Can we trust it?"
BLAZE:
"It's a giant floating marble. I don't trust anything that doesn't have eyebrows."
Ren snorted, turning away from the orb.
"Alright, fortune-cookie-globe isn't for me. I'll wait outside—"
Then he stopped. Dead.
Something tugged at his eye — not Blaze, not Frost. A… flicker. A glint of silver ink on matte black leather.
A book. Tucked into the bottom corner of an ancient floating shelf.
Its title pulsed faintly:
"Verge of the Last Collapse: Records of the Planet Formerly Named Ka'rath'Mar."
He pulled it free. It was heavy — like it carried weight beyond words.
He flipped through the pages, eyes narrowing as the world he thought he knew unraveled.
The "Caldrith Verge" is not the planet's real name. That's just a portal-access designation.
The real name?
Ka'rath'Mar — the 11th planet in a solar system of 20 worlds.
This planet (Ka'rath'Mar) is considered a "drift-tier colony zone" under a loose, fragmented united government, essentially a cosmic slum-state.The 10th planet, known as Solmerea, is a dominant imperial system made up of five major royal empires:Vanyress DominionOth'Rel ExarchySynn Thalorith CollectiveThe Crimson Petal DynastyHouse Aurelix
These empires maintain absolute power and control the Guardian Order, including the Chrono Wardens, like Lira — though her presence in Ka'rath'Mar is technically illegal.
The 8th planet, called Threxil, is overrun with monstrous lifeforms — a planet of survival and carnage.The 9th planet? No data.
The book only refers to it as:
"Yxtrielle, the Silent Orbit"
A planet surrounded in unknown materials, unmapped gravitational fields, and complete diplomatic silence. No ships return from it.
No contact. No political stake. Just... mystery.
He closed the book slowly, as if doing it faster might summon interplanetary lawyers.
Arix stood nearby, arms crossed, watching him with one unreadable eye and one glowing like a truth bomb.
"You good?" she asked, voice flat.
"Yeah," Ren said, voice cracking, "just had an identity crisis. Been a while."
He turned to her, still holding the book.
"Why is this here? In the open? This kind of info could cause a riot."
Arix shrugged.
"It isn't supposed to be. It just... shows up. For people who need it."
"So I'm the lucky chosen reader of galactic war porn?"
"You're the idiot who might fix it. Or break it worse."
FROST (in his head):
"Okay but hear me out — what if you're the pawn and the king at the same time?"
BLAZE:
"Plot twist: we're all screwed."
CORE (dryly):
"You're not the center of the universe, Ren. You're just standing on its cracked pressure point."
Ren sat down at the nearest glowing reading pod, head spinning.
"Three moons. Twenty planets. Royal wars. Slums with guardian bans. Monsters. Missing planets. What is this place?"
Arix turned away, looking into the crystal orb.
"It's not about what it is, Ren. It's about what it's becoming."
"And let me guess," Ren muttered, "I'm right in the middle of it."
"Not yet," she said. "But you will be. The moment you take a side."
Time: [Cycle 5 : 21:18 – 23:45 Local Drift]
Arix had left.
The vision crystal flickered silently behind Ren, ignored.
The world had gone still — the sort of still that meant you were about to discover something important… or accidentally awaken a demon with a library card.
Ren stayed behind.
He couldn't sleep. Not after what he'd read about Ka'rath'Mar.
So he kept exploring.
📚 Book 1: "Monstrous Index of the Verge Ring"
He pulled out a thick, jagged-bound tome labeled:
"Bestiary of the Verge: Beings Found Between the Flame and the Fold"
Inside: sketches. Descriptions. Footnotes. Some dried blood on a page. Cool.
Huskraath (Common on 8th Planet – Threxil)
Bone-armored giants with no vocal cords. Use echolocation pulses to disorient prey. Immune to conventional magic. Only weak to vibrational shifts in ground-based frequency — basically, you need to dance-fight them.
Spindle Vyx (Rarely migrates to Ka'rath'Mar)
Thin, spider-like humanoids that disguise as shadows. Absorb emotional energy — grow stronger in cities. Can mimic human speech. Often hired as spies.
Gryleks (Native to 11th Planet – Ka'rath'Mar)
Large, wingless dragons with crystalline lungs. Exhale energy that disrupts tech and nullifies magic briefly. Considered territorial but not evil. Worshipped by old Drift cults.
Zok'tal Kin (Possibly from 9th Planet – Unknown classification)
No image. Only reports. Always described differently. But every account ends in the words: "It watched me without seeing me."
The page afterward was torn out.
"Okay," Ren muttered, "definitely sleeping with one eye open forever."
📘 Book 2: "Planetary Systems & Cross-World Laws: Vol 7"
Next was a floating codex that opened itself when touched.
It read like a dry galactic constitution — but deeper in, Ren found the good stuff.
This solar structure, called the Verge Ring, holds 20 planets orbiting a collapsed sun core known as The Ember Womb.
A small rotating hologram showed him a star chart:
Planet 8 – Threxil
Dominated by monstrous species.
No organized government.
Law of Dominance: Power is law. The strongest rules, the weak obey. Magic = irrelevant. Brute force = survival.
Planet 9 – Yxtrielle
Status: Unknown.
No Drift access. No transport anchor. Described only as "The Silent Orbit."
Ships vanish upon entry. Records disappear.
Possibly a natural time anchor or reality rejection zone.
Planet 10 – Solmerea
Ruled by Five Royal Empires.
Law of Heritage & Arcana: All citizens ranked by bloodline, magical potential, and caste.
Home of Guardian Order and Chrono Wardens.
Only place where Raw Magic, Summons, and Dimension-Slicing powers are fully optimized.
Planet 11 – Ka'rath'Mar (Ren's current location)
Fringe territory. Slum-ringed.
United government of collapsing city-states.
Law of Skill & Hidden Potential – combat and status often rely on unmeasurable traits: resonance, timing, trickery, hidden power.
The weakest may still win if their timing is right.
"So I'm literally living on a planet where shonen logic is law," Ren muttered.
🌐 Book 3: "Trans-Planetary Travel: Driftless Methodology"
This one felt... weird.
Bound in translucent leather. Page texture like scales. Smelled faintly of ozone.
Inside: diagrams. Nodes. Pathways.
"Not all planets require Drift travel," it read. "Some carry within them intrinsic channels — paths left behind by the Builders."
These are called Anchor Veins — ancient tunnels, worm-like tunnels in spacetime, built before the Drift Engine era.
Anchor Veins can be activated through dimensional resonance — either through native beings, core fragments, or "world keys."Ka'rath'Mar has three dormant veins, possibly pointing to:Solmerea (Planet 10)Threxil (Planet 8)Unconfirmed sector between Planet 7 and YxtriellePlanet 9? No Anchor Veins. No Drift Anchors. No doors. No keys.
"What is sealed, is sealed. What watches, remains still."
Ren's hand trembled slightly as he closed the book.
"This planet isn't just a battlefield," he whispered. "It's a lock. And someone out there has the key."
CORE (quietly):
"And someone else wants it to stay buried."
Ren tucked the ancient bestiary and travel notes into his satchel — gently borrowed, not stolen — and glanced one last time at the vision orb.
It flickered once.
Then whispered:
"The path begins at the Vein Below the Ruined Bell."